Accusations of Labour shielding Ministers from scrutiny in Parliament

Claims have been made that Labour is protecting some of it’s Ministers from scrutiny in Question Time in Parliament.

Clare Curran again secreted away from the House to ensure she doesn't have to face scrutiny. This is beyond a joke now @nzlabour and is insulting to taxpayers. We deserve basic accountability!#nzpol#nzqt

38 Comments

David

Mallard continues to play a shocker. Brownlee,s speech in the general debate was very good and highlighted how little the new government is actually doing…a relief as far as I am concerned.
Sooner or later Munro will be either in full health or retire and the plum job in the PMs office will be filled and then our press gallery can get back to reporting instead of auditioning.

David

I had the misfortune of listening to Jackson trying to answer a question last week and its pretty clear he has no idea what he is doing and had no grasp at all on the employment figures, sure we get his Maori first and foremost schtick but he is supposed to be the hand picked talent Labour brought in.

Gezza

A problem very noticeable with Willie, in the Chamber during Question Time: The Trevor Show, is that you are correct – and that he simply operates his mouth without engaging brain-gear & dribbles out simple, silly nonsense as though he was still on his radio show.

Kitty Catkin

What a good point, Gezza, What is all right on the radio, where profundity is not expected from the announcers. is unacceptable in Parliament.

I was once on a radio station (a small, local one) and the conversation was light in between songs, as it had to be. Lighthearted, amusing banter was expected. It’s not as easy as they make it seem, as one is talking to the other announcer and the audience…WJ may be very good at this on the radio, but he’s useless in the House.

Kitty Catkin

I had hopes that Mallard would have been a credible Speaker.
Not to be.
He is the foil to Questions asked of ministers and is very obviously protecting Labour.
Then he threatens with ‘trifling with the Chair’ when the heat goes on him…
They should concentrate on questioning everything he says or does he certainly isn’t very consistent

Gezza

I like him. I think he’s reasonably fair & even handed. His “supplementaries” withdrawn or awarded punishments cut both ways & get applied to both sides.

From the viewpoint of a frequent watcher of Question Time (& who doesn’t always fall asleep about 3/4 of the way thru & have to catch up with the replay at 6 or 10pm) it is far easier to hear questions & answers in this Parliament than it has been for years because he stops the racket as soon as the whooping, hollering, barracking & insults start flying.

They caught Curran out badly for effectively deliberately not disclosing an obviously relevant meeting on this one. I’m not sure exactly how the Opposition thought they could make capital of out of it if she’d disclosed it in the first place but not doing so makes her look guilty about something.

Compared to almost any previous speaker Mallard is looking like a partisan stooge. He actively protects Ministers. Its like he’s got grandkids on training wheels. His painful lessons to Minister and explanations on their behalf to the Opposition are quite unparliamentary

Gezza

He doesn’t protect them, he keeps them to the rules – of which there are many. If they keep themselves focussed they might actually end up making Question Time function the way it was intended to. He DOES need to educate Ministers (& new MPs) on what they can or can’t do. A lot of them have no idea.

The fact is that the Opposition can be stymied on a lot of things because so much policy detail has to await the presentation of the Budget. Until then the Government can get away with filling the time up with smug, smartass answers the same way the Key adminstration often did, & National have had to switch to playing the straight faces & pained, humourless whiners.

National has to work with a lot of rats & mice stuff that’s not really that important at the moment.

Corky

Zedd

These Ministers have been in their jobs, only a few months & the Natl. attack dogs are already off their leases/Knives sharpened.. Natl were in power for 9 LOOOOONG years… they were at least given a chance to ‘get their feet under the desk’ before they were ‘held to the fire’ !!

It keeps reminding me of that saying ‘They (Natl) know the cost of everything, but the VALUE of Nothing !’ 😦

High Flying Duck

To show so much incompetence so early is quite unusual Zedd.
National performed very well from day one and had an agenda to actually implement rather than wordy statements of intent followed up with “wide ranging reviews”.

adamsmith1922

Trevors_elbow

Being a shadow minister while in opposition means you should know the key numbers and operational processes and procedures BEFORE winning the treasury benches. You should be prepared. They arent and are obviously short on talent to operate a government…

Concrete pills on the desk, take one and do the work is the correct response to ministers fluffing their lines constantly

adamsmith1922

Kitty Catkin

Gezza

I missed the start of the first question on Question Time: The Trevor Show today. Might check out the video, it’ll probably be posted by now. Looks like Winston stood in for the PM. PMs always seem to be absent on Thursdays.

Willie Jackson came over better today: much more Minister-like performance. He explained why hes was absent, on business yesterday.

Nick Smith was a constant interjector during Question 8 at today’s QT & eventually, when ordered, got up & gave such two such deliberately sarcastic withdrawals and apologies for the same etiquette breach he lost the Opposition 3 supplementary questions. He had another whinge about that during Question 12.

I wonder if in fact Speaker Trev IS starting to overdo this punishment, but I can’t tell from the cameras whether this is because the Opposition are misbehaving more off-camera. The Opposition run the risk of losing more if they challenge him on these. He’s less inclined to award the Opposition extra questions when Government members now than when he started this punishment.

I do thinkthat Trev manages the hour well, on the whole, by keeping people on point. And I thought the previous Speaker Carter was over-biased towards the last Government, who were generally the noisiest barrackers of the assembly back then too, from my observations.

It’s probably impossible to get a completely unbiased Speaker, although I think Lockwood Smith was very good, & generally well-respected by all parties in The House. But this questions punishment could become a serious bone of contention soon. I’m not sure if members can raise complaints about it in public with the media.

Gezza

Gezza

Hon Louise Upston: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. In terms of interjections, I thought it was a practice in this House that every elected member of Parliament had the freedom of expression. I am interested to know if you are creating a new ruling today, based on your comments to the Hon Dr Nick Smith about participation—

Mr SPEAKER: No, that member will resume her seat. Firstly, she’s trifling with the Chair, and, secondly, I think she should probably have a discussion with the Rt Hon David Carter who has made a very similar ruling. I know because he made it to me!

robertguyton

National are swamping the Speaker with trifles – petty, negative and the actions of sore losers. Trevor Mallard is handling the pettiness with as much aplomb as possible, but he must be thinking, “W***ers”.